Baking For Dummies
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Many people find making pie crust from scratch challenging. When you make the dough for pie crust, measure your ingredients precisely and don’t overwork the dough: The dough-making process is simple, but you need to use a gentle touch to avoid ending up with tough crust.

  1. Cream butter and shortening together in a large bowl.

    Use 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of cold butter (cut into small pieces) and the same amount of vegetable shortening.

  2. Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

    You need 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 3/4 teaspoon salt.

  3. Work the flour mixture into the butter-shortening mixture until it looks like coarse cornmeal.

    You can use your fingers or a pastry blender.

  4. Sprinkle a small amount of ice water into the mixture.

    Don’t add too much water! Add a little at a time, stopping when the dry ingredients can hold together.

  5. Toss the mixture.

    Use your fingers or a butter knife.

  6. Gather the dough and transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface.

    You can use a cutting board or a cleaned countertop.

  7. Knead the dough very, very lightly.

    If you over-knead, the dough becomes tough.

  8. Shape the dough into a loose ball, divide it in half, and shape those halves into dough balls.

    You have one dough ball for each crust you need.

  9. Wrap the dough balls in plastic and chill them.

    Refrigerate pie dough for at least an hour before rolling it out.

While you wait for the pie dough to chill, you can make the pie filling that you want to use.

If you're sensitive to gluten, you can still enjoy pie by using a gluten-free pie crust recipe.

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